Murder Mystery Without The Mystery: Cain & Abel 

No need to hide it anymore.  We’ve reached the ghetto,  the borders outside of the Garden of Eden where Adam and Eve were banished. They made the “do not allow entry” list. So, first stop in this freshly sinful world? Murder. Reason: Jealously. Anger. The story of Cain and Abel represents the first murder case between humans (cue the law and order SVU theme song). And it all starts with an offering made to God.

Cain is the older brother of Abel. Abel looked after the sheep and Cain worked on the soil. After an x amount of years, Cain brings the Lord some products of the earth as an offering. Abel, however, brings pieces of meat with fat that came from his young sheep that were born before the other sheep. God was pleased with Abel’s offering over Cain’s offering. God does not play favorites, but favors those who do things the correct way. Now, Cain is over here basking in anger. He sucks at hiding his emotions because his face is visibly sad. I can relate. There were many times as a child when I would be mad at something but the sad emotion would be on my face and when my mom would call me out on it I’d try to be like “I’m not angry!” or wonder how she knew. It’s all in the face. 

The Lord = all knowing. He knows that Cain is angry. So he speaks to him.

 “‘You should not be angry and your face should not be sad. If you do well, I will accept you. If you do not do well, you could soon do an evil deed. The devil wants you, but you must overcome him.’”

Let US, circle back. What was so wrong with Cain’s offering that made it unacceptable. What was so bad about it? He worked the field, brought with him some products of the field, then offered it to God. It should have been acceptable because that is what he did? Right? 

Wrong. That is exactly the problem. There are three movements that stemmed from Cain, Abel and Enoch (son of Seth, who we will discuss later on). Let US focus on the first two movements.

1. Cain: What does he represent? Cain represents every major religion that goes against the movement of the lamb and comes to God with their own works. Cain tried to offer God the works of the cursed ground. Therefore, cursed works. As we know in the fall of Adam and Eve, sin entered the world through Adam. God cursed man, woman and the serpent. God literally tells Adam “Cursed is the ground because of you;”. This makes Cain’s offering to God entirely unacceptable.

2. Abel: What does he represent? Abel represents the movement of the lamb (it is evident through the old testament that the lamb represents Jesus Christ and it’s been that way since the beginning). This is the movement that us Born Again Christians get down with. His offering was the best he had to offer (the firstborn and their fat), which made his offering more excellent than Cain because of Abel’s faith in the Lord. He represents those who come to God the right way and follow his will the way He wants us to do it.

You can not assume that you can come to God any type away and worship Him how you see fit. That is what we call the Cain syndrome. They reject the movement of the lamb. It’s contagious among the false religion communities because they are trying to worship their “version of God” or false gods in their own way.  God has His way that he wants us to follow when it comes to serving him.

God tells Cain straight up  “If you do well, I will accept you.” As in he has another chance to come to God the right way for him to be accepted. Yet, instead of him correcting himself, Cain rejects that and kills Abel, who did absolutely nothing to Cain. The only thing that Abel did was serve a proper offering to the Lord. Cain was not just a murderer because he killed Abel, he was a murderer before the act by hating the person of the lamb, and rejecting the movement of the lamb. 

Again, God gives us chances. Similar to the aftermath of the fall of Adam and Eve, God asked Cain about Abel’s whereabouts. God knows that Abel is dead. He knows that Cain killed Abel but he still asks, giving Cain a chance to come clean, which he doesn’t. 

“Cain replied, ‘I do not know. I am not my brother’s keeper.’ And the *Lord said, ‘You have done a very evil deed. I can see your brother’s blood on the ground. So I cause evil things for you. I make you go out from the earth. That is the earth where your brother’s blood remains. Now, when you farm the soil, it will not produce its crops for you. You will run away from people and you will wander on the earth.’”

Cain doesn’t express any distress at the crime he has done. The wrong he had done against his own brother. Instead, he shows distaste to the punishment God gives him. “Anyone who finds me will kill me.” Well, gee Cain are you really going this route? It’s not like your brother’s blood is crying out from the ground or anything. He literally thought about himself.  God still protects Cain and places a mark on him to keep people from killing him. If anyone were to kill him the Lord would Punish him severely.  Cain went away from the Lord and lived in the region that is called Nod.

I like what a commentary says about verse 16:

‘Cain went away from the *Lord.’ God is everywhere. God was in Nod. So Cain did not escape from God when he went to Nod. But Cain left God out of his life. That is what this verse means. If we give honour to God, he is with us everywhere. But if we do evil deeds, we can turn ourselves away from God.

[Remember that the enemy’s job is to make us feel farther away from God when we sin. He wants us to feel like we’re too far gone. When that is not true.]

Time for a time skip. Eventually Cain got married and had an abundance of children including Enoch (“dedicated one”) who he named the city he built after.

• Enoch was the father of Irad.
• Irad was the father of Mehujael. 
• Mehujael was the father of Methushael. 
• Methushael was the father of Lamech. 
• Lamech had 2 wives. Adah and Zillah.

Excuse me? 2? Did someone forget to pass him the memo or did he simply look at it and shred it into pieces? God designed marriage to be between a man and a woman, two people to become one body. Yet, this man got two bodies. He deliberately attempts to subvert the original pattern of God of one man and one woman. As we go deeper in the Old Testament, we’ll see more people who end up doing this as well. Lamech was the first to start this trend. So Adah’s son was Jabal, whose family lived in tents and looked after cows, whose brother was Jubal, the father of all those who make music by harps and flutes. Zillah’s son was called Tubal-cain, who made tools out of copper and Iron, with a sister name Naamah.

Lamech. Mr. Proudy Pants. There are six generations from Cain to Lamech. Lamech represents both skill and strength, as well as arrogance and vengeance. Lamech is not the same as Lamech, the son of Methushael. So, Mr. Proudy Pants is boasting to his wives a little taunt song.

 Lamech said to his wives,

          ‘Adah and Zillah, hear my voice.

                      My wives, listen to the words that I say.

          I kill a man if he hurts me.

                      I kill a boy if he strikes me.

    If any person kills Cain, God will punish that person 7 times more severely.

                      But when a person hurts me, Lamech, I punish him 77 times more severely.’

You can’t physically see me but just know I had the straightest face as I read these verses. This captures Lamech’s violent essence. It indicates that he believes that he is stronger than God and can punish more severely than God can (HE IS THE REASON YOU’RE BREATHING, GENIUS). It really be the pride. Do you really think you that strong Lamech? God could have easily had the ground swallow this man whole but he did not punish him immediately.

Anyways, Eve had another son, named Seth to which Eve responds “‘God has given me another child instead of Abel, whom Cain killed.’ Why does she say this? Even though they are not all named, Adam and Eve had A LOT of sons and daughters. We know that Abel represents the movement of the lamb, a man after the heart of the Lord’s heart. So for her to say that means that Seth replaced Abel in regards to having a son who serves God. Although she had a lot of sons and daughters. All of her children weren’t serving the Lord. They were most likely doing their own thing. The children highlighted were highlighted in the Bible for a reason. 

Seth had a son named Enosh. Enosh is the third movement. He  represents the first revival in human history to call people back to God through Enosh to bring them back to the movement of the lamb. You notice after it says Enosh was born the last sentence that follows is “At that time people began to call on the name of the Lord.” The birth of Enosh meant that Seth’s line would continue and the promise of the Lord would not be forgotten. This my dear readers marks the beginning of preaching, witnessing and testifying in the name of the Lord.

I’m excited.